Idukki (Kerala), July 18 : Shocked by the brutality, Kerala is praying for the speedy recovery of a five-year-old boy who is in critical condition after being thrashed by his father and his second wife.

Doctors treating the boy said he was responding to treatment but was still in critical condition and his chances of recovery, as of now, were only 25 percent. The boy is on ventilator support.

"He is still serious. The good thing is he has started to move his hands and legs in response to medicines," said a doctor Thursday.

The cabinet Wednesday pledged to bear the cost of the boy's treatment. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy directed Social Justice Minister M. K. Muneer to visit the boy at the hospital.

Muneer, himself a doctor, said shifting the boy to another hospital was not advisable.

"The doctors have said he is responding to medicines and this is a good sign," he said.

The boy was admitted Monday after his father brought him to the hospital with head injuries which he said he suffered after falling from a ladder.

But doctors realized the boy also had burn marks on his body, a deep wound on the head and a broken leg. The boy was also frail and looked very frightened. They alerted the police.

Once the father and his second wife were quizzed, police learnt that the boy had been subjected to brutality. Both have been arrested.

The boy's mother visited him at the hospital and kept insisting that she never abandoned her son.